But how low is the fupremacy of the crown reduced, that it must thus afk advice, and grant no preferments in the church without the leave of our new inquifitors! Where are the liberties of the clergy and people of England, if purgations must be the consequence of the vile charges of envy and malice! Which of our reverend prelates can fit with fafety on their bench, if they must be obliged to defend themselves against the base infinuations of fcandalous and abandoned informers! Awake, Oye Whigs, in defence of injured majefty, the honour of your church, thus impudently afperfed, and your own, and your fellow-fubjects liberties thus infolently invaded. Inquifitions, purgations, prieftly powers, and the like, are the goodly groupe of doctrines, now openly avowed, and publickly pleaded for. In oppofition to these exorbitant principles and claims, the OLD WHIG is refolved to make his appearance in the world, demands your patronage, and questions not your encouragement and protection; especially as he brings with him no more of republican than he doth of flavish principles, is a hearty friend to the present happy conftitution, and an enemy to none but those who are enemies to the religion and liberties of his country.

NUMB

NUM B. II.

Quid libertate pretiofius? Porro quam turpe, fiordinatio everfione, libertas fervitute mutetur? Plin. epift. xxiv. lib. 3.

I

Am very glad to find, by feveral good informations that I have received, that the title I have affumed, and the defign I appear to engage in, meet with a kind and favourable reception amongst the inhabitants of this great and wealthy city: nor indeed could lefs be expected, than that a paper, devoted to the caufe of liberty, fhould engage the attention and receive the general encouragement of those, who enjoy the fruits, and fhare the advantages of this invaluable bleffing; who owe their trade and extenfive commerce, their riches and plenty, the fecurity of all their properties, and the unmolefted exercise of their religion, to liberty.

No man is born intirely for himself, but is bound by the laws of reafon and religion to confult and promote, as far as he is able, the welfare of others, efpecially the publick good of that fociety of which he is a member; on the fafety and happiness of which, his own perfonal intereft hath a conftant and intire dependance. And as almost all the valuable

bleffings

bleffings of human life must neceffarily stand or fall with liberty, an attempt to explain the nature and vindicate the principles of it, to fettle its boundaries, to defend it against the inroads of flavery, to discover the private and diftant defigns of wicked men formed against the intereft of it, and vigorously to oppose, by folid reason and argument, every publick attack that may be made upon it, must be acknowledged to be worthy the character of a good citizen, a real patriot, and a lover of mankind.

'TIS with a fole view of ferving this glorious caufe, that I appear in the world, under the title of an OLD WHIG; because it hath ever been one of the distinguishing parts of the character of a true Whig, to be zealous for the liberties of the fubject, in oppofition to the claims of arbitrary power in our kings, and the practices of factious bigotted ecclefiafticks, who have envied us the liberties providence hath kindly favoured us with, and been frequently employed as tools by ambitious princes to ruin and inflave us; that by depriving us of our civil liberties, they might rob us of our religious ones too, and leave us nothing but what we held at the precarious pleasure of the mitre or the crown.

THE name of Whig took its rife in the reign of King Charles II. and was bestowed on the best patriots then in the kingdom, as a term of difgrace, for their oppofing the arbitrary measures which were carrying on by

that

that monarch, and vigorously afferting the rights of parliament, and the privileges of the people. They were true friends to the old English conftitution. They faw with concern the attempts that were made to ruin it by the reigning prince, and dreaded the profpect of a popish fucceffor, whom they knew to be of a warm and furious temper, and under whom they had just reason to fear the fubverfion of their religion, and the lofs of all their liberties as Englishmen and proteftants. And therefore, as they well knew that no poffible expedient could be found out to secure the liberties of their country and the reformed religion, under the government of a popish prince, bigotted to his own fuperftition, and under the influence and management of bigotted and crafty priests, they were for pursuing the only measure that under God could poffibly fave them from the impending ruin, and for excluding him from the fucceffion to the throne, who was by principle and religion, an avowed enemy to the nation. The names of Ruffel, Cavendish, Capel, Montague and Winnington, will ever be remembred with honour, who were the moft zealous promoters and advocates for the exclufion bill.

TRUE and genuine Whiggifm therefore confifts in a zealous attachment to the liberties of mankind, and particularly in a warm and habitual concern for, and refolution to support, all the just laws and privileges of the

British

British nation. It confiders our princes as invested with their fupreme authority for the publick welfare; as the executors of the laws, the fathers of their people, and the protectors of all good fubjects in their rights and properties. It efteems the laws which bound the prince's power, equally facred with those which determine the measures of obedience in the fubject; and is as much an enemy to all tyrannical proceedings in the one, as it is to rebellion and treason in the other. It regards the obligations between the king and his people as reciprocal; and the obedience of the latter as then only, according to the conftitution, due, when they enjoy their juft protection under the government of the former. It then reverences their perfons, chearfully contributes to the fupport of their state and dignity, and ftudies the ease, the honour and profperity of their administration. In a word, tho' it bears an irreconcileable and mortal enmity to tyrants and oppreffors, and confiders them as the plagues and curfes of mankind, and is and will be no longer fubject to them, than whilft conftrained by neceffity and force; yet it places benevolent, wife, and righteous princes amongst the most exalted characters of human life, honours them as the true vicegerents of almighty God, the best as well as the greatest of beings, and pays them an obedience that is the effect of inclination, and flows equally from a sense of duty, gra

titude and intereft.

THUS